


The Time We Spent Together

by ADyingFlower



Series: Ardynoct Week [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Dorks in Love, Falling In Love, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Headcannons Galore, M/M, Married Life, Mental Breakdown, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Parenthood, Politics, Reincarnation, Some background Promnis, They have kids and get married, Towards the later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-01-10 00:48:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12287724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ADyingFlower/pseuds/ADyingFlower
Summary: Day 6:  Oracle!Noct & King!Ardyn AUCrown Prince Ardyn Lucis Caelum meets Oracle Noctis Sanctus at a cerebration of their beloved patron goddess. It wasn’t love at first sight, or second, or even third. But it was a tale of beginnings all the same, a tale of love and lost in equal measure.





	The Time We Spent Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tynxcann](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tynxcann/gifts).



> So this has been sitting in my drafts FOREVER GOD and I have never been more happy to finally have an excuse to post the first chapter

The first time Ardyn met Noctis was during the ceremony, celebrating the goddess Shiva in all her glory and splendor.

The Lucis Caelum family was always particularly overt in their worship of the goddess, seeing her as a deity not of death but of rebirth. In contrast, the Sanctus family were proud devouts to the goddess Etro, rumored to have descended from her and a human gifted with the light to banish the dark, passing this treasured power with the utmost care from family head to family head.

Prince Ardyn Lucis Caelum was scant a boy when he met the Oracle, Noctis Sanctus, wrapped in cloths drenched in light and life, who shy smile could bend a room full of people to their knees.

It wasn’t love at first sight, or second, or even third. But it was a tale of beginnings all the same, a tale of love and lost in equal measure.

///

“You have lovely eyes.” Noctis admitted the first time the two of them had a chance to talk alone.

Ardyn’s head snapped up. At twenty-six, it was expected of him to take the throne soon from his ailing father; to wed and create heirs when all he wanted to do was run around the city in disguise and laugh at his guards disgruntled expressions as they lost sight of their prince once again. “Pardon me?”

“You heard me,” The dark haired boy downright smirked at him, cherubic face not matching with the deadly spark in his eyes. “I said your eyes were lovely.”

Then he reached forward, and in hands a golden light grew. He rubbed his thumbs under each of Ardyn’s eyes, brandishing weeks of stress and nightmares like they were nothing.

“I’m not sure the church would look fondly upon you for using holy powers for such a trivial use.” He commented when he blinked back the remains of the swirling lights in his vision. Noctis didn’t appear to care, propping his legs lazily on the prince’s lap instead with a tired yawn on the shared couch, tucked away in a private parlor far away from the buzz of the crowd of drunk partygoers.

Oracle Noctis Sanctus was ten years his junior, proclaimed to have become the youngest Oracle in history after his father, Regis, grew ill from the continual strain of healing people day in and day out. Soon, the pain of healing so freely without a care would come back to bite him, and he would learn to regret this magic of his. But that day was not today, by evident by the lazy slant of his eyes as he regarded him.

Noctis titled his mouth lazily at him when he received no response, only shoving his feet harder into his lap. After a moment of silence and the universal eye roll of ‘do I have to do everything?’, he reached down and unbuckled his heels, tossing the shoes without a backwards glance behind him. “Rub my feet, if you have time to complain already, Princess.”

His eyebrow twitched at the nickname, but after a moment he gave in and started rubbing the clothed feet in his lap. At least the Oracle knew decent hygiene, he thought to himself as Noctis let his head fall back, the strange headdress falling back with a loud thump.

“Thank the heavens,” He full out groaned, draping an arm lazily over his eyes. “I _hate_ heels.”

Ardyn raised an eyebrow. “Then why wear them?”

He flapped an arm absently in the air, as if gesturing the whole ballroom beyond the grand door, the _locked_ grand door thanks to the boy half in his lap. “It would absolutely be scandalous!” Noctis said in the worst falsetto that Ardyn has positively heard in his life. “If a young and famed Omega like yourself tried to dress like an Alpha! Oh yes, wearing flats instead of heels is really going to somehow magically change my gender identity.”

The last statement was filled with such vile anger and despair that Ardyn couldn’t help squeeze his ankle in a weak attempt at comfort. When the boy continued to have his arm draped over his face, blocking any emotion from escaping, he awkwardly cleared his throat, cursing ever god out there for making him admit to this out loud.

“When I was a sixteen, I went to my birthday party in a dress.”

Noctis arm slid off fractionally, revealing one of his eyes, bright with both unshed tears and curiously both. “You _didn’t_.”

“I did.” He confirmed with a grin, and that finally got a startled laugh out of the other boy. “In stilletos.”

“Oh stars,” Noctis cracked up, trying to imagine it and each time dissolving into helpless giggles. “Tell me, you gotta tell me - did you shave your legs?”

Ardyn leaned towards him with a practically wicked smirk on his face, Noctis’ expression a twin to his own. “You better believe it. I thought Ignis was going to have a _stroke_ when I ‘accidentally’ flashed the entire party my garter belt.”

“ _Etro above_ -” He wheezed, collapsing back into the couch with another senseless round of laughs. “I can’t even-”

The prince only watched this with a grin, having expected as much. “If you think that was bad, you should have seen my twentieth birthday. If I wasn’t the crown prince my father would have most definitely banished me from the kingdom for the rest of my natural life for the total sum of property damage.”

Noctis slapped his knee, no laughs escaping as he helplessly wheezed in between gasping words. “Fan…Fucking…tastic…”  

He tisked jokingly, squeezing the soles of his feet playfully, about to add on more to the story, when a distinct beep came from Noctis’ pocket. With a groan after several more moments of catching his breath, the younger boy reached into his pocket and promptly ignored the call.

“Ughhhhh….” Noctis whined, his head flopping back on the armrest with a dramatic thump. “Fuck this shit, I’m comfy.”

“Duty calls?” Ardyn teased, outright laughing at the glare Noctis was sending with all the rage of Ifrits anger. After a moment, the Oracle gave up, instead pulling his feet out of the prince’s lap and blindly patting a hand out for his headress on the ground.

“More like my babysitter,” He muttered loud enough for Titan to hear him, lifting himself from the couch with effortless grace and trekking across the cold marble floors for his heels. “Only took the man going on an hour to miss me.”

When Noctis slipped on his heels and tottered towards him, Ardyn reached out a hand to him with a benevolent look, palm up. The boy gave him a strange look, but offered his hand to him all the same, their palms hovering over one another.

In one smooth motion, Ardyn brushed his lips over the back of his pale hand, letting himself linger there for a moment longer than what anyone would deem appropriate. When he looked up, Noctis was watching him through lowered eyelashes, mouth parted in surprise. But after a moment, his mouth flickered into the beginnings of a smirk, and with a whispered goodbye, Noctis was gone like he was never there, a slip of a shadow sliding out the door and into the party.

///

“Meet me outside by the stables in five minutes.” Was all Noctis said before hanging up. Ardyn blinked at his phone for a second, because last he checked only Ignis and his father knew his personal phone number. Nevermind why the Oracle was in Lucis of all places.

Noctis was indeed by the stables when he managed to sneak himself out of the citadel, hat pulled low over his head and gods forbid, _pants_ on.

“Oh believe me, it took a hell of a lot of creative thinking to figure out where to hide these.” He explained when he caught the glances Ardyn was throwing at the casual sweats he had on. “Now come on, we’re going on a field trip.”

Ardyn raised an eyebrow. “We are, huh?”

“Yep, so get on or I’m dumping you here.” Noctis grinned at him, swinging his leg over the chocobo he’d been petting and neatly climbing onto the saddle. Ardyn sighed, but really he had to do his best to suppress a smile as he clambered on behind him.

“Mind if I ask where we are off too?” Ardyn inquired as Noctis sped off on the bird, reins gripped expertly as he maneuvered his way out the servant entrance and down the cobblestone roads towards the exit of the city.

“Nope.” He actually clicked his tongue as he steered the bird out the gates, no one giving either of them a second glance, though Ardyn ducked his head a bit against Noctis’ back just in case. In no time at all, they were out of the city and into the fields before the smaller settlements cropped up, disembarking off with a casual ease and plucking a previously unnoticeable bag off the saddle.

This time, he really did raise both eyebrows so high they were in danger of disappearing into his hairline. “A picnic, my my.”

If one dared to look twice, they could even say the boy’s ears were red. “Shut up! It’s not like that you old geezer.”

“I would hope not,” Ardyn visibly scoffed, but scooped up to help him with the rather heavy looking bag. “I am ten years your seniors, after all, and while you're awfully adorable you’re still a child in the eyes of the law.”

Instead of the insult he was expecting, or even a sharp retort, Noctis’ face turned a such a bright shade of red that freshly spilled blood couldn’t compare to it. He gaped, swallowing several times before he could force a strangled sentence out. “You...think I’m...adorable?”

Ardyn tilted his head, a tad confused if he could say so himself. “Why yes, isn’t that obvious?”

Instead of answering, Noctis almost folded into himself as came to a sudden stop, almost ripping the folded blanket out of his bag and laying it hazardly across the ground, all without glancing once up at him. He sighed, almost fed up and yet finding it somewhat flattering that an omega of such a high status would get flustered around him of all people.

“Here, let me help-” Noctis whipped the bag out from under his hands with a scowl, pointedly turning away with a snobbish air that Ardyn though he was the only one who could imitate. Suppose it’s a royal trait, then. “-Or not, I suppose.”

“Just shut up and eat your lunch.” The younger boy grumbled, plopping ungracefully to the ground in a fit of pique. Ardyn stifled a smirk and instead sat himself down, taking the offered sandwich with only a raise of the eyebrow.

“Now now, don’t be so mean, you might give me the idea that you dislike me.” Ardyn teased, his words stuttering to a stop as Noctis’ head practically whipped around to give him a look of half embarrassment, half ‘shut the fuck up before I shiv you’, which was attractive in an extremely strange way that he tried hard not to think about too deeply. Ten years your junior, Ardyn Lucis Caelum. Ten years.

Besides, Noctis deserved better than an old man lusting after him. Ardyn was assured that he probably had hundreds of offers waiting for his hand in marriage the instant he came of age, if their weren't already some stacked up.

(Though a part of him whispered that he held the highest rank out of all of them)

Noctis angrily took a bite of his sandwich once he was assured his threat had gone through via eye contact, only speaking after he finished swallowing. “I need your help.”

“Oh? Whatever for?”

Without looking, Noctis reached over and smacked his knee. “There’s an upcoming tour in Altissia, for me to heal the newest crop of the starscourge. I was wondering if...You would attend with me.”

For all of Noctis’s quirks and refusal to abide by society’s stigmas, he was also raised in the heat of Tenebrae politics. He, more than anymore else than perhaps himself, knew how to speak without actually saying anything.

_Political move. Having the Crown Prince of Lucis appearing in a public event with the Oracle will show favor for Tenebrae. Someone’s making threats then. Accordo?_

Ardyn reclined slightly, his lips quirking unintentionally. Who knew the free spirited omega could try and manipulate the Crown Prince to his benefit?

Far from the first time, he cursed Tenebrae for outlawing omegas from taking the throne. Noctis would have been a wonderful King.

“And what would be in it for me?” He hummed, flicking his fingers outward with a small smirk.

_What benefits would this give me to play along?_

Instead of looking angry or frustrated that Ardyn caught onto his plan, Noctis only looked amused and faintly...proud. “Isn’t a ball coming up for you to wed?” It was phrased to sound like a non-sequitur, but the both of them knew better.

Why not? He played along. “Yes, on the summer solstice in fact. You’re planning to attend?”

Noctis took another bite out a sandwich, giving the appearance of thinking of his answer. “Hmm, I wasn’t planning too, but I suppose it would get my advisors off my back for a bit if I made a notion of wanting to be wed.”

Ardyn smiled into his meal. “Sounds absolutely atrocious.”

They continued the rest of the meal in silence, but as they were packing up Ardyn teasingly bumped his hip into Noctis’s, grin only widening when he got a matching one in return.

“You know, going on this tour sounds rather amusing.” He mused out loud, Noctis perking up slightly and staring up at him hopefully. “I’ll have Ignis clear my schedule, it appears.”

“Glad you agreed.” Noctis laughed cockily, but the pitch was a little off and too breathy for it to be genuine. As the two of them jumped onto the back of the chocobo, Noctis hands briefly brushed over his, a small smile traded just between the two of them.

_Thanks_

///

Noctis flopped back on their shared bed with a groan, kicking his feet up with the motion and totally ignoring the ‘oof’ Ardyn made when one of his scrawny elbows got him right in the gut. “So tired,” He whined loudly, nuzzling right into his side sleepily.

Ardyn didn’t bother looking up from his book, knowing that when the Oracle wanted to sleep he. would. Sleep. Instead, he brushed a hand down into his tangled locks from being under his hairdress all day in Altissia’s summers heat and played with it absently. Two weeks of sharing a living space and a bed due to the receptionists (and probably the entire world by now) believing they were courting forced you to get to know the other, and quickly.

The younger boy groaned was muffled, face down into the mattress as he was. “Too good for me, gonna marry your hands.”

This time, Ardyn pulled the novel away to raise an eyebrow, knowing full well the boy couldn’t see it but more along the lines of feel it. “My hands? Why, that’s rather selective.”

The reply was barely audible. “At least your hands don’t have the attitude.”

“Quite rude,” Despite the affronted reply, Ardyn was smiling to himself, and if the way he could feel Noctis’s mouth pressed against his side, so was Noctis. “And after all we’ve been through together.”

“Such cruelty, I know.” Noctis rolled over, gazing up at him with eyes filled with laugher and such happiness that it made his breath catch. The Oracle got to his knees, crawling up just enough so they were face to face before collapsing on his outstretched arm.

As this wasn’t the first time Noctis decided Ardyn was a fantastic pillow and fell asleep on him, Ardyn simply adjusted the book with his other hand so he could have ease of access to flip the page and went back to rubbing a hand through his hair. The other boy made a sound not unlike a purr and cuddled closer to his side, face near inches from his shoulder as he finally fell asleep, hopefully for good.

It's been two weeks since the tour started in Altissia, and the heat of the winding city has been both suffocating and relaxing in equal measure. The stream of people needing to be healed was the opposite of steady; some days it was just the two of them exploring the city in horrible disguises, and others Noctis worked himself to the bone healing the black tainted skin of the afflicted while Ardyn stood by, always watching for a sign of trouble. Not that he doubted Noctis couldn’t take care of himself, the score was still 7:4 in Noctis favor when they sparred.

Now, it seemed like their vacation was going to come to an end. The people in need of healing have been tapering off the last couple of days, and sooner or later somebody was going to demand their presence back, as much as a part of him (all of him) wished they could stay in this muggy hotel forever with music from down the street flowing through their open window and clothes strewn everywhere (neither of them were neat people) in the strangest of places.

Ardyn was twenty-six and meant to take the throne soon. Noctis was seventeen and busy with attending his Oracle duties. This odd friendship cannot last, no matter how much he wished it.

That, he thought as he closed his eyes, would be selfish.

“I can feel your melodrama from here, old man.” Noctis murmured without opening his eyes, a small smile unfolding over his mouth when Ardyn jumped with a swear.

“Astrals, don’t scare me like that.” Ardyn frowned down at him, moving the book face down to hold the page next to him so he could flick his forehead. Noct’s forehead scrunched up adorably at that, but he refused to open his eyes and instead moved one of his arms around until it smacked into his stomach before he must have decided it good enough and let it rest there.

“Deserved it.” He mumbled, nosing into his shoulder. “Being too dramatic.”

“I think that’s rather-” The older man didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence before a hand came up to forcibly cover his mouth, promptly cutting him off.

And because he’s a little shit, Ardyn licked it.

“You’re disgusting,” Noctis groaned, finally opening his eyes to pin him with a sleepy glare. “Let me sleep in peace.”

“ _You’re_ disgusting,” Ardyn snarked back, because really, both of them were children and had an absolutely atrocious sense of insults.

Noctis peered up at him, lazily resting his cheek higher up on his arm and stretching his arm across his chest. His eyes flicked down with a small cat smile as his eyes roamed over the glossy pages of the book help open over his stomach.

“Hmm?” He flicked his tongue over his lips in a way which reminded him way too much of both a cat and a snake, eyes squinting slightly as he struggled to read the page. “ _The Monster Who Swallowed the Sun?”_

Ardyn smiled softly as he picked up the book with a treasured hand, the corner stained and beloved pages bent back when he bookmarked it, two sets of careful scrawl along the edges of the bolded letters. “It was a children's book my mother gave to me as a child, she used to read it to me whenever I struggled falling asleep.”

He was, admittedly for a moment, a tad nervous that Noctis wouldn’t understand the gravity of what he was sharing with the younger boy. But the slim hand sliding over his own and gently squeezing threw those doubts out the window faster before they were conscious thoughts.

“Could you…” Noctis hesitated for a moment, and Ardyn was reminded vividly in the moment that the late queen Aulea passed away when the boy was only an infant. “...Read it to me?”

“Of course.” He answered without even thinking, propping the book up on his knees and flipping it open to the first page, clearing his throat to Noctis’s evident amusement. “Now shush, will you?”

Without thinking on it, he leaned down and pecked the top of his head, redrawing quickly as he thumbed the colorfully illustrated page. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the faint red blossoming all over Noctis’s face, but he resolved to ignore it. It was just muscle memory, all the times him and his mother used to sit in this exact position; his cheek on her shoulder as she read from this very exact book to him, her gentle voice a harmony of waves as she hummed him to sleep.

“ _Once upon a time,_ ” He murmured the cliche beginning, hearing Noctis take a sharp intake of breath for no reason in particular he could discern. “ _There was a boy who met a monster in the woods._ ”

“ _Boy, why do you travel into these woods?’ The monster asked the boy, as none had dared before for fear of being eaten by the monster lurking in the shadows._ ”

“ _Because’ The boy said to the monster. ‘I want to become your friend.’”_

Ardyn dared a peek at Noctis, seeing that his eyes were half closed, on the verge of sleep itself with only a little more time before he fell into its depths.

_“The monster laughed, because why would an evil monster such as itself need a friend? But the boy was not discouraged, and visited day after day, each dawn bringing wishes of friendship and hope.”_

A tell tale deep breath interrupted him, and with a fond chuckle Ardyn gently mused the hair of the sleeping prince. Maybe he’ll continue the book another day with Noctis, like he had with his own family once upon a time.

Slowly, he set the book down, but not without whispering the last line on the page to the sleeping Oracle beside him. _“Until, one day, the monster and the boy finally became friends.”_

///

It was the fourth time they met that Ardyn realized that he had falled in love.

///

It was Ardyn’s twenty-seventh birthday when Noctis swept into the room in a liminal glow of white and black in equal measure with a cocky grin on his face and not a care in the world.

“This is a bit too fancy for your tastes, I imagine.” Noctis teased upon finding him, secluded behind the stage for the band with a glass of some high brand alcohol he hadn’t bothered catching the name of.

Ardyn snorted, tipping the glass back and relishing in the slight burn. “Your imagination is correct, but my father is not one to be dissuaded when it comes to these matters.”

“I imagine not, he practically glared me down when you admitted I was your date for the night.” Noctis admitted from somewhere behind him, the familiar sounds of shoes being removed echoing in the back room.

Ardyn was tempted to throw a glance behind, but the enchanting golden swirl of the wine caught his eye as he considered finishing the rest of it. “He’s always been particularly selective about who I may or who I may not talk to, I can see that it would irk him that I would dare do something without his permission.”

“Ugh, that sounds extremely annoying. If he was my dad I probably would have ran away when I was a teenager.”

Ardyn shrugged, finishing off the rest of the glass and setting it down by his feet. “It is what it is. We don’t get along personally, but he is a good father, no matter how distasteful his desire for control is.”

The Oracle plopped down next to him, a glass of his own in his hand even though he was much too young to drink. He sent the younger boy a pointed look, but got promptly ignored as Noctis chugged the glass.

“Please,” He spoke when he finished the glass, setting it beside him with a musical clink. “I’ve been handed drinks under the table since I was thirteen. I probably have a better alcohol tolerance than _you_.”

Well. He couldn’t quite come up with anything to say to that.

Noctis flicked his hair out of his eyes with a quiet smirk, smugly proud in all his ombre glory. “Considering you’re the one who invited me to be on your arm for the party, you would think you would stop treating me like a child.”

“Sorry to say, but you _are_ a child in the eyes of the law.” Ardyn retorted, almost feeling like Noctis was digging his perfectly filed nails in his chest, searching for the spot that made him tick to get something he didn’t want to admit out of him.

He heard a growl, and then small hands were on the lapel of his jacket and spinning him to face violently glowing blue eyes. “When will you get that I’m not a child you idiot?!”

Ardyn felt rage like none other fill him, seeing more than feeling his own hands rising to forcibly yank on the front of Noctis’s shirt until their faces were inches apart from one another. “When you turn eighteen, that simple!”

Shock plastered across his pale features, barely a moment, before something akin to steel formed in his eyes and-

Noctis was-

The older man toppled over, falling onto his back on the hard stage, violin in his ears and his mother’s voice saying _oh little one-_

A moment passed of Noctis pressing his lips against his unresponsive before he surged up, desperate hands tangling in his previously styled hair and kissing back as if he would die of oxygen without it. “You stupid little boy,” He whispered when they separated, cupping his face as the anger drained out of him.  

Noctis smiled, a quirk of the lips really as his eyes roamed his face, his own hands dancing around his cheekbones. “Well, I’m _your_ stupid little boy then I guess.”

And damned if that send his protective instincts into overdrive, and Noctis knew it. Affectionate feelings rose to the surface, an echoing voice of _protect-keep safe-treasure_ reverberating in his mind.

He rubbed his thumb under his eye, black eyelashes fluttering at his touch. “Do you have any idea what your actions will cause?” He kept his voice soft, but his firm resolve was just within reach if anyone dared to look.

“I do. The question you should be asking yourself old man, is if this is worth suffering the consequences?” Noctis bit back without any heat, lowering his head and cuddling up under his chin, a hand sneaking up his arm to interlock Ardyn’s fingers with his own.

Ardyn tossed the idea around in his mind as they sat there in content silence. This relationship of theirs would have consequences, this was something both of them could see. There statuses were close enough in rank that no one should cause a fuss at all about it, but the age difference was a bit...offsetting, to say it lightly. Ten years was nothing to be taken lightly, and while Noctis was old enough technically to court if he had his parents permission, he was still underage.

But-

He thought of a small hand in his dragging him through the Altissan marketplace with a childish grin under the ridiculous sun hat, of the plaid under his legs as words entwined with too many meanings traded between them like a game of pass, of feet in his lap tapping quietly to the beat from the ballroom reverberating through the decorated walls.  

The Prince thought of Noctis. Just him, the sun rising slowly behind him as he spun to face Ardyn, a smile already on his face as his eyes glowed in the morning light.

“Ah,” He finally said out loud, running a hand through Noctis’s tousled hair as if to put up a proverbial middle finger to those poor stylists. “I suppose it is worth it.”

Noctis rolled over, resting his chin on the flat on his chest, but there was a blinding smile on his face as he tapped his fingers on Ardyn’s upper arm to some unheard rhythmic beat.

“Well,” Noctis tilted his head, a strand of hair lazily falling in front of his face. “I always did love men of no consequences.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_The smell of tar and smoke-Someone is screaming it might be him-A wail not unlike a siren permeating through the ancient walls-Blood there’s so much blood he can’t heal it why can’t he heal it-Broken limbs and broken hearts and banshee shrieks tearing into his heart-_

_-This is all my fault_

_-It’s all your fault_

_-I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’M SORRY I’M SO SORRY PLEASE_

_-P_

_-L_

_-E_

_-A_

_-S_

_-E_

**END CHAPTER ONE**

  
  
  



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